I agree, you have to be verry carefull with the flash and BB. when I was too close to animals, I was trying to find the position were from I was not to shoot direct to the animal faces.

All shots (I brought home ~ 1000) was hand held - try to shoot above your head and stay mobile, I was using the flash in ETTL with High speed and the camera in Manual, was keeping Shutter speed shorter than 1/250.